Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman said it was a “surreal” and inspiring experience to be completely cut off from Earth for about 40 minutes while the Orion spacecraft rounded the far side of the Moon.
Wiseman made the comments during a media call from space on Wednesday night as he and his fellow astronauts continued their journey back to Earth. During their record-breaking journey around the Moon on Tuesday, communications were temporarily lost when the Moon blocked radio signals between Orion and NASA. The communication disruption was expected.
“I’m actually getting chills right now,” Wiseman told reporters. “My palms are sweating, but it is amazing to watch your home planet disappear behind the Moon.”
He described watching Earth gradually vanish from view as the spacecraft moved along the Moon’s far side.
“You could see the atmosphere, you could actually see the terrain in the moon, projected across the Earth as the Earth was eclipsing behind the moon. It was really, it was just an unbelievable sight. And then it was gone.”
LIVE: Artemis II astronauts answer media questions as they continue their journey toward Earth following their record-breaking lunar flyby. https://t.co/iAN74RMaRk
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Communication was restored once Orion emerged from behind the Moon.
After regaining contact, Wiseman said the crew paused briefly to take in the moment before continuing their scientific observations.
“We shared maple cookies that [astronaut Jeremy Hansen] had brought, and we took about three or four minutes, just as a crew, to really reflect on where we were, and then it was right back into the science,” he said. “And it is a surreal feeling, but we had a lot of work to do, too, and I think that kept our focus.”
Wiseman also reflected on an emotional moment during the mission, when the crew named a lunar crater after his late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. That moment came shortly after the astronauts surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
“We all pretty much broke down right there, and just for me personally, that was kind of the pinnacle moment of the mission for me,” Wiseman said. “That was, I think, where the four of us were the most forged, the most bonded, and we came out of that really focused on that day ahead.”
The Orion spacecraft is expected to splash down Friday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at around 8:07 p.m. EST.
